In a Land of Cul-de-Sacs, the Street Grid Stages a Comeback

[M II A II R II K]

In a Land of Cul-de-Sacs, the Street Grid Stages a Comeback


October 21, 2020

By Nolan Gray

Read More: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...e-grid-is-back

.....

The spread of this style of anti-urban planning is a global phenomenon: According to one recent study, since 1975, the disconnectivity of street networks, both in terms of new cul-de-sacs and lengthening distances between intersections, has increased dramatically not only within American suburbia but across much of the developing world. It’s a space- and resource-hungry pattern that has long attracted criticism.

- But the Great American street grid may be staging a comeback, and from an unlikely place, the wide-open exurbs around Texas boomtowns. As Robert Steuteville noted in Public Square, a growing number of Texas towns are rediscovering the wisdom of gridded street layouts. Back in 2017, Laredo America’s largest trade port and consistently one of the fastest-growing cities in the country adopted Plan Viva Laredo. The comprehensive plan envisions a dramatic expansion of Laredo’s historic grid as the city expands outward, creating a framework for walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods rather than the siloed sprawl which has characterized much of Texas’ recent growth.

- And in late 2019, the Austin exurb of Bastrop adopted the Bastrop Building Block (B3) Code, an integrated development plan addressing everything from building design to parks planning. Faced with a booming population Bastrop has grown by nearly a third since 2010 and a regularly flooding Colorado River, the growth pressures facing the small Texas town were real. The appeal of a street grid, which ended up being central to the plan, was that it could at once address sustainability concerns and growth needs in the most efficient street pattern possible. The Bastrop code is unique in other ways. Where most American planners now spend the bulk of their time regulating private development, B3 is strikingly agnostic about what happens between the streets.

- The benefits of grids in places like Bastrop could go beyond mere infrastructure planning. As the coronavirus pandemic leaves many suburbanites isolated in communities defined by land-use segregation and a lack of public spaces, grids might be just what the doctor ordered: With greater connectivity and walkability come opportunities for interspersed plazas, more housing variety, and even the occasional corner grocery. In this sense, grids might help to strike the right balance between urban and suburban, injecting a little civic life back into the American sprawl. — From Boise to Atlanta, communities in regions like the Sun Belt and Mountain West are expected to keep expanding outward, especially if the prophesized coronavirus “urban exodus” materializes. Will cities have a plan?

.....